NC prisons save money by releasing dying inmates

Thursday

Jan 22, 2009 at 10:33 AMJan 22, 2009 at 10:34 AM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The early release of a dying inmate from a North Carolina jail has drawn complaints from some victims' family members and lawmakers who question the policy that allows terminally ill prisoners to go free.

North Carolina is among more than 25 states that allow early release of dying inmates as a way to save money. The latest was 41-year-old Jeffery Cooke, who was dying of liver disease and let out of the Currituck County jail nine days before Christmas to die at home, The Charlotte Observer reported Thursday.

Cooke was serving a one-year sentence after his fifth drunken-driving conviction and was scheduled to be released this month.

District Attorney Frank Parrish of Elizabeth City prosecuted Cooke and said the Department of Correction never consulted him about the release, but he wouldn't have objected.

"You're balancing public safety against equity and humanity, and in Mr. Cooke's case it came down on the right side," Parrish said.

A 2007 study showed that North Carolina spent $34 million on health care for inmates older than 50. That was a 35 percent increase from 2006.

North Carolina's prison population rose 5 percent to 38,400 between 2005 and 2007. The number of inmates 50 or older rose 21 percent, according to state figures.

North Carolina spent an average $1,284 on health care for each inmate under age 50 in the 2006-07 fiscal year and $5,425 for each inmate older than 50.

Prison officials said they are wrapping up treatment plans for three other inmates who will be released to die at home. Three or four others may be released under the new program.

Similar programs exist in more than half the states, including South Carolina. The idea is that it spares the states some of the expense of caring for dying inmates.

But critics of North Carolina's program say it does little for victims' families and taxpayers.

"If you take them out of the prison system and put them into the public health system, they're still being paid for by the taxpayers," said Sen. Andrew Brock, R-Davie. He was one of 13 legislators who voted last year against legislation creating the early release program.

Dick Adams of Bath, chairman of the N.C. Crime Victims Compensation Commission, said families of victims he has talked to oppose the program. Adams, whose son was murdered in 1982, said the state should enforce the penalties it imposes.

"We should retain some measure of certainty (about punishment) if we're going to maintain certainty about public safety," Adams said.

Alison Lawrence, a policy specialist with the National Conference of State Legislatures, said releasing dying inmates is "one of the policy options states are looking at to save money."

Legislators who opposed North Carolina's plan said it shifts costs from the prison budget to Medicaid, a program for the poor that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments.

Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, sponsored the legislation and agreed it shifts cost to the federal government, but said the state must pay all the costs if a prisoner is in custody.

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